Unsealed Documents Reveal Details Of Death Threat Sent To State Senator Leland Yee

A newly unsealed document in Santa Clara County Superior Court has revealed that the person who sent an email death threat to a state senator in January called himself “a trained Marine sniper” with “39 confirmed kills in Afghanistan.” “Don’t make me get to 40,” the email said, according to the document filed in the case of Everett Fred Basham, 45, of Santa Clara. Basham is accused of being the person who sent the threatening message to state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, on Jan. 11. He faces 12 criminal charges in Santa Clara County Superior Court, including charges of making threats while armed with a rifle and possessing two destructive devices. The previously sealed statement of alleged facts by California Highway Patrol Officer Byron Wong was unsealed in connection with Basham’s ongoing preliminary hearing.

Deputy Santa Clara County District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci said the preliminary hearing will continue in Superior Court on Monday and may conclude that day. Basham is being held in jail without bail. The email message received by Yee threatened the senator because of his efforts to work on gun control legislation. Yee announced last month that the message was a “very explicit threat” by a person who said he was a trained sniper, but details of the message were not disclosed until the CHP statement was unsealed. The message also said, “I know where your office is and where the state capital building is in Sacramento. I have hiding spots around both with clean view,” according to the CHP document. Wong also said in the statement that Basham graduated from the University of California at Davis in 1990 and described himself on a social media website as a former employee of Hewlett-Packard Co.

The CHP officer said Basham lives in Santa Clara, but maintains an office at his parents’ home in Sunnyvale for a company he owns that is called Labrent/Uwave Gov Sys. Wong said in the documents that investigators found a forged U.S. Army identification card in Basham’s car as well as alleged bomb-making materials, rifles, pistols and assault weapons in a search of his home. Yee said through a spokesman that he could not comment on the newly revealed details because the case is ongoing. Last month, the state senator said the threat “will not deter me and my colleagues from addressing the critical issues surrounding gun violence.”

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